The Laser Sight
The science fiction of the thirties, forties, and fifties
was well stocked with death rays. Thi sis about the first thing that enters
people minds, when we consider millitary use of the laser, but until recently,
this was a false impression. Millitary interest in lasers has centered
around their use as target illuminators, rangefinders, and sights. More
recently, many armies have taken to the use of laser blinding deviecs called
dazzlers, and the United States now has three laser weapons systems of
which I am aware, and maybe more which are being kept under wraps. I will
not really get any further into the use of lasers in the millitary, because
this is a different line fo development than that taken by civilian and
police uses.
As early as the seventies, police agencies began
to use laser sights on tactical squad weapons. These were tube based weapons,
generally being based around helium neon lasers. They were heavy, somewhat
delicate, and obscenly expensive. Most had key locked on off switches,
and many featured external battery packs to try and keep the weight of
the rifle mounted components managable. These units were, by an unofficial
agreement, not marketed to civilians. Most of the early rifle mounted units
had laser tubes of up to 15mw, as opposed to the 1 to 5 mw units common
in today's laser diode units. Today's best units, the ones designed for
rifle use, still use tubes, for a couple of reasons. THe first is that
the tubes are readilly available at 15mw power levels. The second is that
there is less beam divergance, and mor eefficient use of hte power. Thus,
a 5mw tube appears brighter, and has a tigter beam than a 5mw diode. Laser
diodes of greater than 5 mw are uncommon, while 15 mw laser tubes are in
abundant supply.
IR lasers and night scopes
intenal lasers
laser diode units